Back to a manual
It's been 20-ish years since I've regularly driven one of these things.
I recently traded out the terrible Versa because it had issues. What I replaced it with was a Japanese subcompact. Used, of course. It's a little car that easily achieves a 35 MPG average, but can achieve 40 and even better with hardly any effort.
The big deal however is that the car has a manual 5-speed transmission.
In America, finding a car with a true mechanical manual transmission is rare. Go to any shopping center parking lot, and it's a sure bet that fewer than 1% of all the cars there will have a 5 or 6-speed stick in the floor. You just don't see these things anymore.
It's even more rare to see a car with manual gearbox that is not a kid racer piece of garbage. My car is 100% unmodified. No stupid aftermarket tint. No "cold air intake" buffoonery. No Flowmaster muffler. No "upgraded" wheels. A car like this is so rare that I can confidently say it is most likely the only stock unmodified car with a manual gearbox whenever parked in any parking lot.
Advantages of driving a car with a manual gearbox
If you know how to handle 3 pedals and a stick, there are some nice benefits.
- Stick Discount - If the model of car I bought had an automatic transmission, it would have cost 25 to 30% more just to buy it. With the 5-speed stick I got a massive discount just because of the stick.
- Possibly the best anti-theft deterrent device - I could take the car, park it in any lot, walk away leaving it running, unlocked and with windows rolled down... and on my return the car would be right where I left it. Nobody would bother stealing the car because nobody knows how to drive stick anymore.
- Stupidly easy to increase gas mileage - The automatic version of my car is 33 pounds heavier than what I have. That's like carrying two 16-lb bowling balls in the trunk 100% of the time. A 33-lb weight reduction may not sound like much, but believe me, it matters. I can also do other things now like short-shifting, proper coasting, and so on.
- Engine braking to save brakes - When done properly, downshifting to slow the car when approaching a stop extends brake life (particularly the fronts) a great deal.
How does it feel going back to a manual?
Pretty cool.
Modern cars pretty much operate like a Barbie Jeep in the respect everything is all push-button and sterile.
It literally has been 20+ years since I've daily driven a manual, and I totally forgot how organic the driving experience is with a stick. With the car I have now, a Barbie Jeep it is not.
Driving stick is not as smooth as the auto, but that's not a bad thing. I can really feel the car more when upshifting and downshifting. It has actually caused me to drive more safely and deliberately.
Where fun factor is concerned, obviously the manual is better than the auto. Running through the gears or even just downshifting to pass someone is fun.
My car is thankfully modern enough to be equipped with two things I can't live without, that being A/C and cruise control. Having A/C is self-explanatory. It's the cruise that's awesome. I've never owned a car with a stick that had cruise that actually works. This one does.
It's neat driving the manual. I dig it.
Four Squier guitars you have probably never heard of
These are some older discontinued models that I found used for sale right now at Guitar Center, so yes you can get these at the time I'm posting this.
Squier Venus
This was an oddball design where the humbucker pickup leaned one way and the neck pickup leaned the other, with ferrules after the bridge leading to the rear where the strings are loaded. It's definitely different and looks cool.
Squier Espirit
This design doesn't appear to borrow anything from Fender whatsoever. The design is a bit more on the reserved side, but the block inlays and binding look nice, and the pointy headstock adds in a bit of uniqueness.
I am somewhat sure the top of the body is arched, but not totally sure.
Squier X-155
This is a very classy axe. Big body, big tone and a fantastic looker. My favorite part of the guitar is the Squier "S" in the tailpiece. I'm pretty sure this is the only Squier to ever feature such a thing.
Squier M70
You might think at first that this is a Les Paul copy. It isn't. This guitar actually is more close to copying Gretsch single cutaway guitars. See the modern Gretsch G5220 Electromatic Jet and you'll understand what I mean.
Does this mean the M70 sounds like a Gretsch? No, because it obviously doesn't have Gretsch-style pickups. It just has a normal humbucker tone to it.
A cheap not-Strat Strat that's actually good
It might be cheap, but this guitar has it where it counts.
To start off, no, this is not as cheap as the Squier Bullet Strat. You will spend a little more to get this guitar, but only a little more. It's the Sterling by Music Man Cutlass SSS.
There are two immediate things about this axe that make it better than the Squier.
First is that it has two knobs instead of three. This means tone control on every pickup setting, whereas with traditional Strat wiring you get no tone control on the bridge-only pickup.
Second is the truss rod adjustment location at the heel. You'll see a black notch after the neck pickup and before the neck. That's the wheel where you make the adjustment. This is, without question, the easiest possible way to adjust neck relief. Why? Because you never have to detune the strings. With a headstock location, at least two strings have to be detuned to make a neck relief adjustment. With the wheel at the heel end there's no such requirement. Just pull the strings slightly out of the way, tighten or loosen to your desired relief, and that's it. Done and done - and you can do it 100% from the seated guitar position too. Very convenient.
Actually, there's a third immediate benefit over the Squier. The volume knob is away from the bridge side pickup. A very common complaint of Strat owners is that they keep hitting the volume control accidentally. You will not have that problem with the Cutlass.
Now aside from all that, yes this guitar sounds like a Strat and it looks cool in Daphne Blue. The neck has the oh-so awesome satin finish, just like Fenders do. The truss rod is dual-action for even easier neck relief adjustments (as if it wasn't easy enough already). Tuners are all proper die-cast metal secured with nuts on top. Even the neck connection is more stable with a 5-bolt pattern.
Yeah, you get a ton of guitar for the money with the Cutlass SSS. But of course the best part is that this guitar is cheap. More expensive than a Squier Bullet, yes, but still far less expensive than the nearest available Fender.
Are there any downsides? The output jack is on the side of the guitar like a Telecaster instead of on top like a Stratocaster, and the headstock does look slightly "stubby" with it's 4x2 tuner layout. But then again, that is a staple of Music Man design.
And yeah, that's it. Those are the downsides, if you could even call them that.
Basically put, this is pretty much the best not-Strat Strat there is. Much easier neck relief adjustment, volume knob won't get knocked accidentally, sounds right, and is priced very nicely. Trust me, you can afford this one.
I should also mention there is a gorgeous rosewood board version and a very nice looking HSS version as well - all for the same price.
The cheapest Squier Strat
Is this guitar any good?
Of course it is.
Over the weekend I ran down to a Guitar Center to pick up a pack of strings, saw a Special Edition Squier Bullet Strat in Sea Foam Green, and tried it out.
Now to note, this is literally the cheapest adult size Strat that Squier makes. And it's still as cool as it ever was.
I have to admit that I had a wave of nostalgia hit me while playing this guitar, since I owned a Bullet Strat back in the day. This one pretty much follows the exact same formula, with the only thing really changed is that it's now made in Indonesia and not China.
Actually, one other thing changed. This one does use the new updated Squier logo. Yes, this does look better than the old logo. Even the BY FENDER under it looks better with the all-caps treatment, similar to the look of a 1960's radio. It's a cool look.
When the logo even makes the cheapest model look cool, you know it's a logo done right.
Also notice it says STRATOCASTER on the headstock and not BULLET STRAT. It's also cool to see that. Technically, this does make the guitar a "real" Stratocaster.
Does it sound good? Yes. Does it play well? In stock setup, no. The action from the factory is of course ridiculously high and the guitar needed a setup.
The weight is good and this guitar had a very familiar feel to it. Same satin urethane neck finish, same control layout, same everything as the Bullet Strat of old...
...and that's a good thing. I'm glad this guitar is still being made. It's a beat-around guitar that absolutely sounds like a Strat is supposed to. Yes, it's cheap, but still great.
The tale of the terrible Nissan Versa
I just traded out this car. This is my experience with it.
Versa was a car I had for a little over 2 years. I bought it originally for three reasons. It was cheap. It was a hardtop (meaning there was no sunroof that would ever leak), and it wasn't a big stupid truck.
Said honestly, I could have - and I say this loosely - probably gotten another 50K miles out of this car. Mine was one of the better Versas out there because it had an automatic transmission and not the dreaded CVT. Any Versa that has the manual gearbox or AT is typically a good runner - if you can deal with the car's quirks, which I couldn't.
A short list of the quirks:
- Geared too short - The transmission was a 4-speed automatic. For traveling at 60mph or less, no problems. But for highway speeds over that, the revs go over 3000 RPM and stay there. This car desperately needed a 5-speed auto transmission but there were only 4 gears. Lots of high-rev droning noise at highway speeds because of that.
- Subframe bushings - I never got these replaced because of the crap involved to get the job done. These subframe bushings are not expensive at all. The problem is getting the old bushings out. It's not an impossible job and could be done over a weekend, but I just couldn't be bothered with it.
- Really cheap interior vinyl - I, like many other people, like to clean my car's interior to keep it smelling good and looking nice. Well, I noticed something whenever I tried to use a safe-for-vinyl-interior cleaner. The coloring actually started to come off the vinyl, right on to the towel. Fortunately, I didn't wreck the interior because I figured out what was going on quickly. But after discovering this, I only lightly wiped the vinyl surfaces dry with a polish cloth after that. The factory vinyl from Nissan was just of a very poor quality.
- Poor gas mileage for what it was - The 1.8 motor averaged about 27 MPG. If the transmission gears weren't so short I could have easily achieved a 32 average. I did try hypermiling the car for one fill-up and did eke out a 40 average, but that involved a lot of coasting in neutral and no A/C use. So yes, the 1.8 can get 40 but you really have to work to get it.
- Bad highway manners - I felt myself fighting with the car whenever on the interstate with it. There was nothing wrong going on, but the driving character of the car on highways just wasn't good.
- Speedometer 3mph too slow - From what I understand this is a standard thing Nissan does.
- Seat recliner levers on the inside of the seat - Not a problem, just weird. Both recliner levers face the middle of the car instead of the doors.
Stupid things due to the dopey previous owner
None of what I'll mention below was Nissan's fault but rather the guy who last owned it that did stupid stuff to the car.
- Crappy window tint - The last guy who owned the car decided to install tint on every window, including the windshield had a stupid kid racer style thick stripe on the top. All the tint looked blurry and distorted. I routinely had to roll the windows down just to see outside the car clearly even during day driving. The rear glass was the worst, with tint so crappy it made white cars look pink.
- Possible "cold air intake" mod buffoonery - I suspect the previous owner had a dopey intake mod installed, but before trading in the car he put the stock intake back on. Fortunately, there were no engine issues and it seemed to breathe normally. But from what I saw in the engine bay, I'm still pretty sure that dopey mod had previously been there.
- Crappy aftermarket radio - The radio worked, I'll give it that. But it wasn't installed well. The adapter kit used to make it fit the double DIN sized hole didn't fit quite correct, so it was slightly loose. And once I took out the radio to take a look at the wiring (I was considering buying a factory Nissan stock radio to put back in there), I found a massive tangle of wires. No way was I going to be able to get a stock wiring harness working ever again, so I just put the dopey radio back.
Good things I can say about the car
- Side mirrors were nice. They're big and easy to see stuff with.
- The 1.8 engine is fast. Easy to get up to speed and always had the power there when needed.
- Steering wheel is thick and felt great.
- Very comfy seats.
- Excellent A/C system.
- Always started on a dime. Never an engine problem with sputtering or stalling.
- The low tire pressure monitoring system actually worked right if there was a low tire.
- Very tight turning radius.
- Cavernous interior space. You can fit a ton of stuff in this car.
- Taller than it looks. It towers over Camaros and Mustangs. And yes this means the car has great headroom.
- Gigantic glove box. It goes waaaay back into the dash.
- Windshield washer reservoir could take an entire gallon by design. No leaks. Filling the reservoir was also very easy.
Things I learned
Never buy a car that's been modded by the previous owner
The car I drive now is used but as far as I can tell is all stock and never been modified. Factory radio, factory glass with no dopey aftermarket tinting, factory everything. And it's lovely.
Modded cars are junk. Undoing all the "improvements" the previous owner did just isn't worth it.
Window tint ruins cars
Prior to the Versa I never owned a car with aftermarket window tint on it, and I never will again.
If I ever feel the need to darken the glass, I'm just buying a cheap shade set. Just slap it on when needed it and take it off when done. No glass mods needed, and it works.
All aftermarket stereos are terrible
They all look stupid and don't match the look of the car, and none of them fit correctly. If anything, it's better to convert that space into a pocket for usable storage.
It's definitely better to just keep things stock. Modded cars as I've come to learn are just awful.